Cantors

I read with incredulity your story on the demise of the art of cantorial improvisation ("A Glorious but Endangered Tradition," by Daniel Feingold, Jan. 9). Having served as a cantor for 72 years (I was called to the cantorate at the tender age of 9), I am dismayed that there is a feeling among my most esteemed colleagues that improvisation is a dying art. I beg to disagree. As long as there are cantors who pour their minds, their souls, their voices into the prayers, touching people with the beauty of the music and the meaning of the verse, the art of improvisation will endure.

Sportscaster Dan Patrick found his popular morning radio and television show caught in the middle of a feud between DirecTV and the Weather Channel. Patrick's show had booked Weather Channel star Jim Cantore to appear on the show this week to talk about the forecast for Sunday's Super Bowl, which is being played in northern New Jersey. But that apparently didn't sit too well with DirecTV, which owns Patrick's show and carries it on its own Audience Network Channel. DirecTV stopped carrying the Weather Channel earlier this month because of a contract dispute and the two have been trading blows in the press.

The sweeping defeat suffered by Republicans in Virginia last month serves as a warning for the party ahead of the 2014 midterm elections, a top House Republican is warning Saturday. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), in a speech to be delivered to Virginia Republicans on Saturday afternoon, called on his party to move beyond internal differences that contributed to statewide losses in November and put forward a positive agenda, a message that could also apply to his congressional allies.

When Arie Shikler was growing up in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan, his musical tastes ran to Elvis and the Beatles. Except on Friday afternoons, when he and his father would listen to the haunting, soothing chants over the radio of cantors marking the Sabbath. By 1970, Shikler, who had moved to California and tried to earn a living as a musician in folk and blues clubs, would find himself chanting the same prayers almost by accident.

Congregation Or Ami will present "An Evening with Doug Cotler," a performance by Or Ami's cantor, at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Cal State Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff St. Cotler, a Grammy winner, is known for his modern interpretations of classic Jewish liturgy. The event, sponsored by Calabasas Motor Co., will be held at Cal State Northridge's Performing Arts Center. Admission prices range from $18 to $90. Information: (818) 677-2488.

Every morning before dawn, Steve Baum dons his brown knit yarmulke and a clean mechanic's uniform, hops on his Yamaha motorcycle and rides to Young Israel of Northridge to lead the morning services. An Orthodox Jew and owner of Dr. Steve's Car Clinic, Baum is not only the choice mechanic for most religious Jews in the San Fernando Valley, he is also one of Los Angeles' few remaining Orthodox cantors.

High school senior David Stotland was one of only half a dozen young people who attended a job fair this week staged by the Cantors Assembly, a nationwide group whose members are worried that their profession is running out of recruits. More than 70 people had been invited. The sparse attendance reflects the problem of the vanishing cantor. Last year, organizers said, 60 synagogues sought new singers to lead their prayers, and the assembly could only provide 15 candidates.

As television executive Gary Levine entered Ohr HaTorah Congregation's sanctuary in West Los Angeles on a foggy Saturday morning, he adjusted the white prayer shawl wrapped loosely around his shoulders and placed his yarmulke on his head. Facing the 300 assembled worshipers, the Tarzana resident opened his music folder, and his rich bass-baritone enveloped the auditorium. The congregation began swaying as it joined him in celebrating the Sabbath.

As television executive Gary Levine entered Ohr HaTorah Congregation's sanctuary in West Los Angeles on a foggy Saturday morning, he adjusted the white prayer shawl wrapped loosely around his shoulders and placed his yarmulke on his head. Facing the assembled worshipers, the Tarzana resident opened his music folder, and his rich bass-baritone suddenly enveloped the auditorium. The 300 adults and children began swaying as they joined him in celebrating the Sabbath with songs and prayer.

WASHINGTON - As the new Congress began this year, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia sought to redefine the Republican Party as focused on "making life work" for ordinary Americans. Surveys showed that the public had tired of the party of "no" as House Republicans fought President Obama. The party lost its opportunity to win the White House or take control of the Senate last fall, and saw its House majority shrink. Cantor's approach echoed the "compassionate conservatism" of an earlier Republican era. In a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, he said the House majority would "pursue an agenda based on a shared vision of creating the conditions for health, happiness and prosperity for more Americans and their families.

WASHINGTON -- House Majority Leader Eric Cantor outlined a kinder, gentler House Republican agenda for the coming term that puts a greater emphasis on kitchen table issues, and called for a path to citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants. Two years after the Republicans came to power in the House on a wave of tea party fervor, Cantor's speech at a DC think tank Tuesday - entitled “Making Life Work” - marked the start of an effort to move beyond the budget fights that have come to define the party at a time of divided government.

WASHINGTON - The second-ranking Republican in the House, in a speech Tuesday intended to unveil a new strategy for the politically hobbled party, cast the GOP as an advocate for improving the lives of working Americans even as he reaffirmed its insistence on balancing the federal budget. The heavily promoted address by Majority Leader Eric Cantor marked the latest attempt by a Republican to reframe the party's postelection agenda. And it was the most significant to date by a leader of the institution Americans see as the epicenter of political dysfunction: Congress.

The powerful, deftly constructed documentary "Out of the Clear Blue Sky" examines the tragedy of9/11through the prism of bond trading firm Cantor Fitzgerald, which, at the time of the terrorist attacks, occupied the top five floors of the World Trade Center's North Tower. Horrifically, all of the company's 658 employees who made it to the office that fateful morning were killed, accounting for an astounding 24% of 9/11's total casualties. Cantor's youngish (then-40), hard-driving chief executive, Howard Lutnick, was one of the firm's 202 remaining WTC staffers who escaped death merely by a chance absence - he was taking his son to his first day of kindergarten.

Andres Cantor, the Spanish-language broadcaster with the boisterous goal calls, matched Mexico's stunning goal in the opening minute of the London Olympics men's soccer gold-medal game with his usual verve. For those who don't know about Mr. Cantor, his minutes-long yelling of g-o-o-o-o-o-a-a-a-a-a-a-l-l-l-l after a team scores is legendary in sports circles. The bigger the moment, say taking a lead, putting an exclamation point on a victory, the better his call. When Mexico stole a pass in Brazil territory moments after the opening kickoff and Oribe Peralta rocketed in a 20-yard shot only 29 seconds into the game, Cantor let loose with his call (click and enjoy)

Eric Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the House, threw his support behind Mitt Romney just days before the marquee day of the GOP presidential nominating race -- Super Tuesday. The House majority leader and Virginia congressman said Romney was the party's best candidate on what is likely the central 2012 campaign issue: the economy. "Mitt Romney is the only candidate in the race who's put forward a bold, pro-growth, pro-jobs plan for the future," Cantor said in an interview on NBC's "Meet The Press" on Sunday.

September 22, 2010 | By Kevin Thomas, Special to the Los Angeles Times

It's hard to imagine a more profound expression of the healing power of music than Matthew Asner and Danny Gold's deeply affecting "100 Voices: A Journey Home. " The film follows cantor Nate Lam, of L.A.'s Stephen S. Wise Temple and father of the film's co-writer and co-producer, as the 72 cantors he gathered from around the world perform at the Warsaw Opera House, the largest theater of its kind in Europe. They also appeared at the Krakow Philharmonic, participated in Poland's annual Jewish Cultural Heritage Festival and conducted the first Jewish service at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

A synagogue official deported from Canada after mailing child pornography to an undercover FBI agent in Southern California was sentenced in Los Angeles Monday to 15 months in federal prison. Stuart Friedman, who served as the cantor of a synagogue in Canada, also must undergo three years of supervised release after finishing his prison term, U.S. District Judge Carlos R. Moreno said.

With House Speaker John A. Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor on separate overseas trips, Democrats are taking shots in their absence. A Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee site -- whereintheoworldisjohnboehner.com -- pounces on the GOP leaders for their globetrotting during congressional recess, when Democrats say they ought be at work on a tax cut plan. Of course, globetrotting during congressional recess is a time-honored, bipartisan tradition, so the dig does lose some of its punch.

When all else fails, try breaking bread together. As the White House and congressional Republicans continue on a seemingly endless loop of political partisanship, Vice President Joe Biden has invited Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the House Majority Leader, to dinner this evening. The two seemed to hit it off earlier this year, an odd couple of sorts as they holed up in negotiations on a bipartisan deficit-reduction proposal. But Cantor abruptly bolted from those talks and it became clear compromise was not to be found.